Wine

It was the first time I’d seen honeycrisp apples in… I don’t even know. I eagerly paid too much, too early, for far too many apples. (I’ve never tried to keep my hoarding tendencies a secret.) So much so, that the cashier looked at me like there must have been some kind of a mistake.

But to answer her question: Yes. There is something special about Honeycrisp apples. They are my very, very favorite apples. Sweet, beautifully crispy, and they actually taste like an apple should. Eat them straight from the shopping bag, make chicken salad, applesauce, or bake them into a slab pie. They work everywhere.

Also? Sangria.

When my HEB “Ciao Italia” Primo Picks arrived this month celebrating Italian food, I zeroed in on the Clementine Italian Soda. Central Market’s line of Italian sodas are some of my very favorite things in the world to make sangria (and margaritas) with.

The Clementine Soda isn’t very sweet and it’s less carbonated (compared to “regular” soda) so it was perfect to knock the edge off of that bottle of budget, “too-sweet red” that I had stashed in the wine shelf for emergency sangria. And if the sudden need to make sangria for football Sunday with some spendy first-reappearance Honeycrisp Apples doesn’t qualify as an emergency, then I don’t know what does.

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The lucky winner is Eva! Eva, please check your inbox for instructions on how to claim your prize!

Besides Sangria? Carbonara, either traditional or in any of it’s many, many wonderful forms.

Honeycrisp Apple and Clementine Sangria

A fall sangria with sweet honeycrisp apples and clementines.

Ingredients

750ml bottle of any sweet red wine

2 cans of Clementine Soda

1 Honeycrisp apple, cored and very thinly sliced

2 clementines

Additional sugar or sweetener, as desired

Instructions

Add the red wine and apple slices to a pitcher.

Using a citrus zester, make a couple of passes over the clementine to pull off a few strands of zest and add to the pitcher.

Peel the clementines, roughly chop the segments, and add to the pitcher.

Just before serving, add the clementine soda and taste to see if you require further sweetening.

Notes

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This recipe was developed in conjunction with H-E-B and I was provided ingredients as well as compensated for my time. Messy fingers, stretchy-waisted pants, and baby-Elmo-clogged-toilets are all mine. You can find H-E-B on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. And if you’re as lucky as we are, 3 locations within a 5 mile radius.

Because it was almost 10am. And I was alone in the house with a bag of plums and a $6 bottle of wine that I was surprised to discover wasn’t a screw top. The odds…

But Jason owns one of those multitool thingamajigs that has a flip-out corkscrew in it, a corkscrew which promptly broke the second that I pulled on it turning my $6 bottle of wine into an unwieldy, high class shiv.

A pair of pliers and several “mommy words” later, I poured myself a glass of wine. At 10am. I kinda earned it.

And when that first sip confirmed that 10am was far too early (even for me) for a glass of $6 wine, I simply dumped it straight into a casserole dish with beautiful red and black plums, cherries, apples and citrus zest and I called it cobbler.

Sangria cobbler.

I’ve had worse ideas. But few go as great with a scoop of ice cream as this one.

Sangria Cobbler

The best parts of sangria - sweet and ripe plums, cherries, citrus, and red wine - come together in cobbler form.

The night before a big barbecue, when I had a house to clean and a birthday cake and 4 other dishes to make, I was standing around my kitchen island with a notepad, shot glasses, and a bunch of bottles from the liquor cabinet. My to-do list for the party less than 24 hours away included a bunch of “fun” stuff like mop floors and hide laundry. Instead, I chose to focus on 2 pounds of raspberries and a bottle of Sauza.

One of my girlfriends orders her margaritas frozen, topped with a shot of Chambord. Swirled together, the tart lime and raspberry liqueur make for a very happy hour. With the abundance of fresh (and super cheap!) raspberries available, I set out to make a raspberry margarita that she would enjoy. And one that would make me forget about my to-do list

We tried versions with raspberry liqueur, those were boozy but they didn’t taste very fresh and the color wasn’t very impressive. We tried versions with fresh raspberry puree, those were prettier and fresher but still fell a little flat. Ultimately, we decided upon a very happy mixture of both raspberry puree and raspberry liqueur – plenty of raspberry flavor to pair with the tart lime drink.

I worked the recipe based on the value that made the most sense – a 6 oz clamshell of raspberries. You might find that your mileage for the raspberry puree might vary when cooking down the raspberries, but don’t worry if you’re a little heavy or maybe just a bit short. It won’t matter after you finish the first one anyway. I promise

And I finally buckled down and mopped the floor and the barbecue went off without a hitch. With two carafes of pretty red raspberry margaritas that were as big a hit as the birthday cake.

Raspberry Margaritas

Fresh raspberries and raspberry liqueur turn an ordinary margarita into a very happy drink.

Ingredients

For the raspberry puree:

6 oz fresh raspberries

1/4 cup water

For the cocktails:

9 oz lime juice

9 oz water

1/2 cup sugar

3 oz raspberry puree

3 oz orange liqueur

6 oz raspberry liqueur

6 oz silver tequila

Instructions

Heat raspberries and 1/4 water over medium heat.

Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to break down the berries.

Pour into a strainer set over a bowl and press the pulp and juices through the stainer, into the bowl.

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1 cup water and heat until sugar is dissolved and the water is clear.

Add puree, simple syrup, lime juice, liqueurs, and tequila in a small pitcher or carafe.